Self Buff
In 1874, the Buff Turkey was accepted into the APA Standard of Perfection.
It was never a very common color variety and by the early 1900's, had become rare. The Standard called for pure buff coloration throughout with the wings having a lighter shade. This was a difficult coloration to perfect and by 1915, it was removed from the SOP and ultimately became extinct.
Kevin Porter of Porter's Turkeys set about recreating a buff turkey and after a couple of trials with different modifying genes and I believe my pestering him to make a turkey "the color of a buff chicken", in 2014 a new buff was born which he named "Self Buff". This name was meant to be in line with how the Self Blue was named, for having a solid color all over, and also to distinguish the name from any other type of buff (Jersey Buff, for instance). This 2014 hatch only produced hens, and it wasn't until 2015 that he produced a Self Buff male to continue on.
The Self Buff is a true breeding variety and is homozygous for black-winged bronze base (b'), and brown (e), narragansett (n), and red (r) genes. Genotype b'b'eennrr for toms, b'b'e-n-rr for hens.
In 2016 I received my first Self Buff turkeys from Kevin Porter. Since hatchability and size were issues with this new variety, in 2017, I set about doing an outcross, using Narragansett. Any improvement cross like this is always going to be a 2-year project at least.
In 2018, I used the crosses made in 2016. A crossed bird resulting from a Narragansett tom and Self Buff hen in 2017 was mated back to Self Buff hens. The goals in this outcross were to increase size, improve hatchability, and produce birds with a more mellow temperament. I did see improvement in size and hatchability. Temperament still remained an issue (the birds are flighty). This was perhaps the most difficult turkey cross I have made since only 12.5% statistically would hatch Self Buff, out of 16 possible genotypes. And the same genotype as Self Buff, but without e, looked the same at hatch and had to be raised for many months until the difference could be discerned. Thanks again to Kevin Porter for helping me sort through all the genotypes from this cross. I will refer to the birds that have Narragansett blood in them as my "improved line".
After culling all incorrect genotypes and birds that didn't meet my expectations from 2018, I ended up holding over 4 toms and 4 hens to use in 2019, as well as 4 Self Buff hens hatched in 2017 (these did not have Narragansett bred into them).
2019 was an interesting year and a turning point for me with poultry. I set up 4 breeding pens with pure Self Buff trios, numbered C1, C2, C5, and C6. All pens had a tom from the 2018 improved line. 2 pens had a 2017 hen plus a 2018 improved line hen (C1 and C6). 1 pen had 2 2018 improved line hens (2), and 1 pen had 2 2017 hens (C5). I tried to match birds to increase size and also maintain genetic diversity.
Results varied among the different pens. The reader should understand I had 17 other turkey pens I was hatching from. 107 turkeys were hatched and wing banded that year. There was a lot going on. By the end of the season, I had Self Buffs from the following;
C1 1 hen
C2 3 hens, 3 toms
C5 3 hens, 4 toms
C6 3 hens, 8 toms
Round about mid summer 2019, I started to have more lower back issues. It didn't help that the shipping company that delivered my feed (100 bags, 2 pallets full at a time) could no longer bring the delivery up my driveway. Which meant it was all dropped outside my gate by the road and instead of picking up each bag once to stack in the storage room, each bag had to be picked up twice: once to load into my vehicle, driven to the back, and unloaded. This, combined with the rising cost of organic feed and the increasing summertime temperatures here in Southern Arizona, among other things, caused me to rethink this "hobby". Another turkey breeder was interested in the Self Buffs, so I negotiated a package deal and all but 4 2019 birds were sold. I held back 4, one from each breeding pen, as insurance for the variety in case something went awry at this other breeder's place since I had sold very few of these over the years. In addition, most of the other colors varieties I was working with were sold and turkey numbers cut back drastically.
This brings us to this year, 2020. I was not yet ready to let go. I bred one trio, mainly just a test to see how well they would hatch. In addition, I wanted to try one other outcross: with a Fall Fire hen (b'b'cgcgRr). The Fall Fire is Sweetgrass with one red gene. It would be relatively easy to pick out the Self Buffs from this breeding, however the downside is they would carry the cg (gray) gene. Only the hens would be kept, since toms would not express e (brown). I waited until the turkeys were laying well and made just one large egg set, so they would all be the same age. All 12 of the Self Buff eggs collected for incubation were fertile, and 10 hatched (83% hatch rate). Of the 13 Self Buff crossed with Fall Fire eggs collected, all were fertile and 12 hatched (92% hatche rate). Compared to 2017, when I had a 47% hatch rate on average from 2 breeding pens of Self Buffs and 45 fertile eggs, this is a vast improvement.
Looking at the Self Buffs from 2020, I have 3 pure hens and 3 hens carrying the cg gene. There is perhaps a slight difference in the amount of white edging on the upper backs, the cg gene producing more white. However if one did not know which is which, I doubt you could tell with certainty. Combined with no significant difference in size or temperament, I do not think it is worth breeding the cg-carriers since the pure breeding nature of the Self Buff would be lost.
Looking forward, it is time for me to stop keeping and breeding turkeys. There are few and far between dedicated turkey breedings unfortunately, most are simply backyard propagators. More serious breeders are needed for this variety, to work towards admitting to the APA SOP once again and not let extinction become the fate of the new Self Buff.
I would love to see this variety back in the APA SOP. We need dedicated APA members and breeders willing to work with this variety for the required 5 years to submit a proposal for acceptance. Contact me if you are interested in this project.
It was never a very common color variety and by the early 1900's, had become rare. The Standard called for pure buff coloration throughout with the wings having a lighter shade. This was a difficult coloration to perfect and by 1915, it was removed from the SOP and ultimately became extinct.
Kevin Porter of Porter's Turkeys set about recreating a buff turkey and after a couple of trials with different modifying genes and I believe my pestering him to make a turkey "the color of a buff chicken", in 2014 a new buff was born which he named "Self Buff". This name was meant to be in line with how the Self Blue was named, for having a solid color all over, and also to distinguish the name from any other type of buff (Jersey Buff, for instance). This 2014 hatch only produced hens, and it wasn't until 2015 that he produced a Self Buff male to continue on.
The Self Buff is a true breeding variety and is homozygous for black-winged bronze base (b'), and brown (e), narragansett (n), and red (r) genes. Genotype b'b'eennrr for toms, b'b'e-n-rr for hens.
In 2016 I received my first Self Buff turkeys from Kevin Porter. Since hatchability and size were issues with this new variety, in 2017, I set about doing an outcross, using Narragansett. Any improvement cross like this is always going to be a 2-year project at least.
In 2018, I used the crosses made in 2016. A crossed bird resulting from a Narragansett tom and Self Buff hen in 2017 was mated back to Self Buff hens. The goals in this outcross were to increase size, improve hatchability, and produce birds with a more mellow temperament. I did see improvement in size and hatchability. Temperament still remained an issue (the birds are flighty). This was perhaps the most difficult turkey cross I have made since only 12.5% statistically would hatch Self Buff, out of 16 possible genotypes. And the same genotype as Self Buff, but without e, looked the same at hatch and had to be raised for many months until the difference could be discerned. Thanks again to Kevin Porter for helping me sort through all the genotypes from this cross. I will refer to the birds that have Narragansett blood in them as my "improved line".
After culling all incorrect genotypes and birds that didn't meet my expectations from 2018, I ended up holding over 4 toms and 4 hens to use in 2019, as well as 4 Self Buff hens hatched in 2017 (these did not have Narragansett bred into them).
2019 was an interesting year and a turning point for me with poultry. I set up 4 breeding pens with pure Self Buff trios, numbered C1, C2, C5, and C6. All pens had a tom from the 2018 improved line. 2 pens had a 2017 hen plus a 2018 improved line hen (C1 and C6). 1 pen had 2 2018 improved line hens (2), and 1 pen had 2 2017 hens (C5). I tried to match birds to increase size and also maintain genetic diversity.
Results varied among the different pens. The reader should understand I had 17 other turkey pens I was hatching from. 107 turkeys were hatched and wing banded that year. There was a lot going on. By the end of the season, I had Self Buffs from the following;
C1 1 hen
C2 3 hens, 3 toms
C5 3 hens, 4 toms
C6 3 hens, 8 toms
Round about mid summer 2019, I started to have more lower back issues. It didn't help that the shipping company that delivered my feed (100 bags, 2 pallets full at a time) could no longer bring the delivery up my driveway. Which meant it was all dropped outside my gate by the road and instead of picking up each bag once to stack in the storage room, each bag had to be picked up twice: once to load into my vehicle, driven to the back, and unloaded. This, combined with the rising cost of organic feed and the increasing summertime temperatures here in Southern Arizona, among other things, caused me to rethink this "hobby". Another turkey breeder was interested in the Self Buffs, so I negotiated a package deal and all but 4 2019 birds were sold. I held back 4, one from each breeding pen, as insurance for the variety in case something went awry at this other breeder's place since I had sold very few of these over the years. In addition, most of the other colors varieties I was working with were sold and turkey numbers cut back drastically.
This brings us to this year, 2020. I was not yet ready to let go. I bred one trio, mainly just a test to see how well they would hatch. In addition, I wanted to try one other outcross: with a Fall Fire hen (b'b'cgcgRr). The Fall Fire is Sweetgrass with one red gene. It would be relatively easy to pick out the Self Buffs from this breeding, however the downside is they would carry the cg (gray) gene. Only the hens would be kept, since toms would not express e (brown). I waited until the turkeys were laying well and made just one large egg set, so they would all be the same age. All 12 of the Self Buff eggs collected for incubation were fertile, and 10 hatched (83% hatch rate). Of the 13 Self Buff crossed with Fall Fire eggs collected, all were fertile and 12 hatched (92% hatche rate). Compared to 2017, when I had a 47% hatch rate on average from 2 breeding pens of Self Buffs and 45 fertile eggs, this is a vast improvement.
Looking at the Self Buffs from 2020, I have 3 pure hens and 3 hens carrying the cg gene. There is perhaps a slight difference in the amount of white edging on the upper backs, the cg gene producing more white. However if one did not know which is which, I doubt you could tell with certainty. Combined with no significant difference in size or temperament, I do not think it is worth breeding the cg-carriers since the pure breeding nature of the Self Buff would be lost.
Looking forward, it is time for me to stop keeping and breeding turkeys. There are few and far between dedicated turkey breedings unfortunately, most are simply backyard propagators. More serious breeders are needed for this variety, to work towards admitting to the APA SOP once again and not let extinction become the fate of the new Self Buff.
I would love to see this variety back in the APA SOP. We need dedicated APA members and breeders willing to work with this variety for the required 5 years to submit a proposal for acceptance. Contact me if you are interested in this project.